Chapter 9

Red Sands Deserts, Asarian Kingdom Border

City of Darthar, City Guard HQ

"Alright, you are free to go lady Aubétoile. Sorry for all the paperwork, but we had to be thorough. Guildmaster Estorius of the adventurers guild is waiting for you in the guild hall. Given what has happened, I'm sure you'll understand if I insist for one of my men to accompany you. No offense to you is intended lady Windwrath."

Allya and Pyn nodded politely. After all, when you had just been cleared of suspicion of octuple murder, it would be considered less than wise to accept the city guard's commander 'security detail'. Then again, given the fact that said commander had nearly had a heart attack when he'd realized she was technically (and although not yet publically announced) a baroness of the realm, moving through a large city without any bodyguard besides her loyal knight, he might truly be giving her a protection detail instead of a guard dog.

"Of course. But I'm sure you'll understand if our business with the guildmaster is private."

The guard commander smiled. It was a pretty nice smile, all things considered. No one would call him handsome or pretty, but those were obviously not factors in his current rank. He was a tall, muscular man, with short blonde honey hair and blue eyes, and the scars that covered his face spoke volume of his combat experience. So did the old electrum adventurer medallion on the wall.

"This is Darthar mylady." He chuckled. "Private business is everyone's second name here, right behind 'we hate taxes'."

Allya chuckled as well. It was true that merchant cities had a tendency to have a...rather interesting view on taxes.

"Point taken commander. In that case, I am more than happy to have your guard accompany us. I can assure you, no offense is taken, this morning's...problems have indeed outlined how understaffed my own security detail is, something that I will have to remedy in the future."

The guard commander (whose name she couldn't remember if her life depended on it. Steve Orland or something) nodded.

"Indeed. Well, in that case, I bid you farewell."

He got up, and slammed his fist against his heart, the salute of a warrior to another the world over, and Allya and Pyn responded in kind. Another noble might have insisted on a formal bow, but even back when she was still living in the Eris Empire she had been far more comfortable with this salute when she could get it. Plus, it was a mark of respect of her combat abilities.

Then, they left the commander's rather spartan office, and stepped into the frenetic activity of Darthar's city guard headquarters. Guards, bureaucrats, and a myriad of other people were busy running around, screaming, and sometimes trying to attack each other. They quickly made their way out of the chaos, and arrived at the entrance. There, a tall brown haired and eyed guard stepped in front of them.

"Lady Aubétoile and lady Windwrath? I am sergeant Ostroh Valker. I have been ordered to escort you until you leave the city."

Allya carefully took note that the commander had only mentioned escorting them to the guild hall. Or rather, had implied that the escort was only until there. Clever bastard.

"Yes, that is us sergeant Valker. I have been warned by your commander."

Allya then simply opened the door and stepped outside. She looked briefly behind her, and saw Pyn's confused look. She sighed, and grabbed the elf's arm, and brought her to her side, then whispered, knowing that the wood elf would be able to pick up her voice even through the noise of the city as they walked through the streets, straight towards the (surprisingly distant, you'd think the city guard's headquarters would be closer to the heart of the city) bazaar, and the guild hall at it's heart.

"Look, with the city guard now warned that we're nobles, it's not going to be long until everyone we meet has at least some idea of who we are. Those kinds of rumors are too juicy, especially in a merchant city. And nobles take honor guards for granted, expect them even. So whenever someone insists to send a soldier to protect us, you smile, nod, let them introduce themselves, acknowledge their presence and then go on your way like if nothing has happened. Once we have our own bodyguard -ones we hired and are loyal to us, and us alone-, they'll sort out whatever needs sorting themselves."

Pyn nodded, confusion still on her face, but looking at least reassured that her friend knew what was going on. Allya suppressed a sigh, she had to remember that unlike her, Pyn had been born a commoner, not a noble of the Erisian Empire. She hadn't been taught since birth the complex web of expectations and appearances nobles shrouded themselves in, and which ones you could breach or throw away and when it was acceptable to do so, like being saluted as a warrior instead of being bowed to.

"Just follow my lead, okay? You're my loyal, newly elevated knight anyway, so they won't expect you to know all the finesse and etiquette."

Pyn's nod was firmer, more assured this time.

A quarter of an hour later, they arrived at the bazaar. It was it's usually bustling self, but right as they were taking a deep breath and preparing to dive in, Valker stepped in front of them. Allya's eyebrow rose, but the sergeant only smiled, and walked forward into the bazaar, trident in hand, gesturing for them to follow.

And the crowd parted.

Allya's eyebrows rose higher at the evidence of the amount of respect the city guard had here. In most cities the guard would have to shove their way through crowds, here the people made way for them. That was an interesting fact. She idly wondered if it stemmed from their effective ownership by the Merchant guild or something else.

In any case, their passage through the bazaar was by far the fastest and less confusing one they ever had. Then again, they had only been through 2 of them, so it wasn't necessarily a high bar to topple. A dozen minutes later, they emerged in front of the guild hall.

As they stepped into the building itself, Allya frowned. The feeling of the room was very different from yesterday, it was....tense. Curious. Filled with expectation. Adventurers were clustered in tight groups, whispering and throwing glances around.

Pyn's ears twitched, and she gave Allya surprised look, but the assassin gestured at her, wordlessly telling her companion to save it for later, hopefully once they'd be out of earshot of equally sharp eared adventurers. The elf nodded, and they made their way to the guild desk.

The first time they had come, they'd gathered a few looks, mostly thanks to their appearance and meeting in the guild's administrative wing. Now, they were outright stared at as they walked straight towards the guild desk with a city guard in tow. They arrived in front of a deskie, who looked up, and Allya suddenly realized that it was Dominique.

"Ah, Allya! And Pyn! And...uh..."

Allya gestured at Valker.

"Sergeant Valker, Darthar city guard. Sergeant Valker, adventurer guild attendant Dominique. Dominique, sergeant Valker." Said Allya has she made the universal back and forth introduction gestures. The sergeant bowed.

"It is an honor, miss Dominique."

Dominique nodded.

"Thank you, the honor is all mine sergeant Valker. In any case, the guildmaster has been waiting for you." She got up, and walked straight towards the door leading the administrative wing, quickly followed by the trio.

Silence descended upon the room as everyone locked their eyes on them. Yep, there definitely were sharp eared adventurers in there, and probably quite a few were casting or activating some spells and enchantments to hear whatever nugget of information they might let slip.

Fortunately, Pyn and Dominique obviously sensed the sudden silence, and their lips stayed sealed until they were safely inside the administrative wing, and Dominique closed the door behind her. It was an open secret that every guild hall's administrative wing was covered in an anti-scrying field, and usually heavily soundproofed.

"Uh, sorry about that. Everyone has been very tense ever since team Crystalline passed through here this morning."

Allya rose an eyebrow, and Dominique blushed slightly in embarassement.

"Team Crystalline is a Mythril adventuring party. No one knows exactly why they were here, but there are rumors that the guild just shipped them halfway across the world through the teleportation network for an emergency job. Some say it's due to a set of ruins opening up." Allya's face stayed studiously neutral as Dominique looked at her inquisitively. Realizing she wouldn't get her that easily, the guild attendant continued. "Others say a sand kraken has been found, or that something has crawled out of the Lost Sands." She shrugged. "Truth is, no one seems to know anything for sure, and everyone is pouncing on anyone that might have some information. Since you're meeting with the guildmaster, well, you get why a lot of people are suddenly interested. Don't take it personally, they're just curious, you know how it is."

Allya nodded, her mind working in overdrive. It looked like Starvak was moving even faster than she expected. Then again, given the position of the dungeon, he was more than justified in doing so. The Mythril team was probably a dungeon assessment team. A little low on rank as far as such teams go, if she remembered well, but still more than sufficient to do the job (after all, if her rag tag team of cutthroats had made it, Mythril ranked adventurers would plow through the dungeon like it was made out of cardboard). Still, it meant her window of opportunity was closing. She hadn't received the full dungeon bounty yet, and without it she wouldn't be able to fully close the deal with Elkaryos by covering her initial joint pledge with Pyn. If they failed to pay up the deal would be off, and everything would go downhill from there. And if Elkaryos learned of the dungeon before they paid him and fully sealed the deal, he might try to wiggle out of it.

"Don't worry, I won't. Still, it is interesting news."

She smiled as Dominique gave her a suspicious look, then her face went neutral again as they arrived in front of the guildmaster's door. Dominique knocked on it, and promptly opened the large metal door as a faint 'Come in!' answered.

As soon as the door opened, Starvak got up, and made his way to the group, grabbing and shaking Allya's and Pyn's hands.

"Allya! Pyn! You made it! Come, sit, sit! Ah, Dominique, if you could find this gentleman something to drink?" He nodded towards Valker. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside, this is a private meeting."

The sergeant bowed, murmuring an 'Of course', before withdrawing from the room with Dominique, who closed the door behind them.

Starvak waited until the door was closed and his guests were seated before plonking himself down onto his seat, rubbing his hands and grinning wildly.

"Ah, it is good to see you young ones! I have excellent news! I have received a call from the guild assessment team, and not only have they confirmed the presence of the dungeon, but they also did the full assessment!"

Allya smiled back, her shoulders sagging in relief, closely mirrored by Pyn.

"That is indeed excellent news, guildmaster. Should I assume then that the full amount of the bounty will be transferred to us?"

Starvak froze, and smiled, looking a bit embarrassed. He had insisted that most of the bounty be kept on guild made accounts for 'safety' until the presence of the dungeon was duly confirmed. They still possessed it of course, they just weren't authorized to withdraw more than 25 000 mana each of the massive 1 million mana sum until the confirmation had arrived.

"Yes, indeed! It is yours to do as you wish. You can withdraw your letters of credit at the front desk, although you might have to wait a bit if you want to get it in mana stones."

Allya nodded, she had expected as much. Mana stones could theoretically hold an infinite amount of mana, although their size increased exponentially the higher the amount of mana they contained. There were techniques to make them denser, but those became more and more complicated the higher the density and the larger the amount. There were rumors of mana stones the size of a pinky that could contain millions of mana, the knowledge to make them lost during the Great Night, but other than that it was rare to see a mana stone containing more than a few tens of thousands of mana be able to fit in a pocket. As such, unless she wanted to run around with a giant bag of mana stones, which would be practically a 'Rob Me!' sign, she would have to use a letter of credit. A letter of credit was an heavily enchanted slip of paper that guaranteed a certain amount of money was on a bank account. It could be used for payment directly, if it was signed a certain way (determined by the owner and kept secret, to prevent someone from forcing them to sign it, by allowing them to make a false signature that indicated foul play) with the owner's mana signature, but usually it was used as a guarantee that someone had enough money to pay, and that the payment could be redeemed upon presenting a slip of paper with the owner's mana signature and express authorization. On Earth, that would have been called a mix between a cheque book and an actual letter of credit from the middle ages.

"Right, thank you. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, well, first things first, I was not warned you were nobles of the realm. Very recent nobles of the realm."

Allya's heart froze as a he glared at them...Then he sighed.

"Look, I'm not going to dictate to you what you do with your money...but be careful, alright? Blowing it all on titles of nobility will accomplish nothing but waste the opportunity you've been given if you don't do it right."

Allya smiled, genuinely relieved. The guard commander had obviously told him they had recently acquired titles, but not what area those titles were of.

"We know, we'll be careful."

The guildmaster nodded. Then his gaze suddenly became deadly serious.

"Now, about the attack. I understand they were common bandits, but are you sure you weren't being specifically targeted? Did you discuss the dungeon with anyone else? Did you talk about it in a public place?"

Allya shook her head.

"No, we didn't to the best of my knowledge." She sighed. "While I'm not ready yet to pin this attack to blind bad luck, Darthar isn't exactly the most secure city in the world, despite the efforts of the guard and the various...entities that have a vested interest in stability and peace."

Starvak winced, which looked interesting with his long, luxurious mustache.

"That...is fair. Still, it is better to be safe than sorry. Hence why I approve wholeheartedly of commander Orlan's decision of assigning you a protective detail, no matter how small it might be."

Allya nodded. And at least she knew that the commander was indeed named Orlan.

"I agree." She smiled sardonically. "I'm not particularly fond of fending off bandits or assassins. And I doubt Pyn is either."

Pyn shook her head, smiling.

Well, that had been a small lie. She didn't like fending off assassins sure, but she wasn't about to deny the essence had proven very useful (although comparatively paltry, given the bandit's low level). So had the gear. She had a full complement of daggers again! To most people, that would seem to be a weird thing to worry about, but she felt almost naked without them. Plus, that ambush had proven that she could never have too many throwing daggers.

The guildmaster chuckled.

"I think that much is obvious. Well, that about covers it. Oh! One more thing, tomorrow I will start organizing the caravan to reach the dungeon, and establish a guild presence there. May I assume you would be interested in being part of it? Since you are the original discoverers, I'm sure I can find you a spot." He smiled and winked. "And I know a lot of people that will buy you lots of beers when you get there!" His face suddenly became somber. "Although I would rather keep who has discovered the dungeon under wraps until after we have left the city. I don't think it is likely that someone could put together a team to try and assassinate, or kidnap you between the announcement and the departure, but I'd rather not court danger like that."

Allya nodded, along with Pyn. Unspoken was the fact that someone actually could put together a team in that short a time, but wouldn't be able to cover their tracks thoroughly enough to avoid having the kingdom bring down the hammer of justice upon them. That would, however, be scant comfort if an assassination team managed to kill them (and probably made sure no one could bring them back).

"I think that's fair. And of course, we'll be delighted to be a part of it. Now, I'm afraid that we have another appointment to keep, may we?"

Starvak sat up.

"Of course, of course! I suppose I will see you tomorrow?"

"Indeed, unless something else comes up. Take care, guildmaster Starvak."

"You too young ones, take care of yourselves!"

Allya and Pyn got up, and left the room, only to find Valker standing guard right outside the door, his trident barring the door, which he immediately got up when they opened it. Allya smiled at him, she appreciated the gesture, even if it was more ceremonial than anything here (after all, several adventurers here, let alone the actual attendants or staff members, could break the poor sergeant in half and feed him his trident. Although she had a suspicion that the good sergeant would put up a considerably tougher fight than most adventurers would expect. Commander Orland didn't seem like a fool after all, and he probably assigned one of his best men to them if he thought a single escort would be everything he could get away with. Plus, city guards heavily recruited ex-adventurers). It reminded her of home, in a way.

She bit her lower lip as she looked away, burying the memories of her personal guards. She had no time for nostalgy. Or regret. She had learned a long time ago that the only path was forward.

"Are you okay?" Asked Pyn, as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You look pale."

Allya took a deep breath.

"I'm fine." She looked into her friend's sceptical eyes, and smiled sadly, grabbing her hand on her shoulder and squeezing it. "Alright, I'm not, but there isn't anything you can do about it. Come on, let's go."

Pyn still looked sceptical, but she let her go. Velkar just looked studiously neutral, like if nothing at all had happened. Allya sighed, and made her way to the door.

She opened it, and stepped through, refusing to stop in surprise at the different groups of adventurers that were 'nonchalantly' waiting nearby.

Fuck.

She took a deep breath, set her shoulders, and started walking forward, hoping that they would realize that no, she wasn't in the mood to talk.

Some of them took the hint.

Most of them didn't.

She had barely made it a meter from the door before she was intercepted.

"Hi! I'm Martin, and I...Uh...." The fairly young adventurer's sentence sputtered to a halt as Valker simply stepped in front of him. The guard didn't even say anything, he just stood there, silently, towering over the adventurer. Martin gulped, and wisely decided to step back.

Some people couldn't take a normal hint. Most, however, got the point when a heavily armed and armored soldier barred their way. Something about survival instincts and the understanding that yes, they perhaps could take him down. But they sure as hell wouldn't be able to take on the whole city guard.

The rest of the adventurers suddenly found something very pressing to do, invariably somewhere far from Allya, Pyn and Valker. Allya started walking again, nodding at Valker in thanks, and smiled apolegetically as Dominique emerged from another door behind the desk (most probably the rec room for the attendants), a glass of water in hand.

Allya smiled at her, and made a beeline towards the desk, Pyn and Valker in tow.

"Hey Dominique! Sorry, this didn't take long, but hey, at least you won't have to walk all the way to the guildmaster's office."

"Uh, right." Said the attendant as she handed over the drink to Valker, who smiled as he took it, and outright downed the water in a single go. "Anyway, what can I do for you Allya? Nevermind, I can guess." She lowered her voice. "You're here to withdraw your letters of credits right? For you and Pyn?"

Allya nodded.

"Good, then this should only take a minute."

Less than 3 minutes of mana signature exchanging, and a tad bit of swearing at a malfunctioning pen, they were in possession of their letters of credit. Which was surprisingly fast and efficient, given how much paperwork was required for most banks, but thankfully the adventurers guild already had the adventurer cards and medallion for identification, which sped up the process nicely.

Allya sighed as she stepped outside the guild hall and went down the steps, then turned around towards her companions.

"Well. Off to Elkaryos then." Allya rose an eyebrow, and looked at Valker. "I suppose you'll be coming as well."

"Well of course mylady."

Allya sighed and shook her head again. Indeed, he wasn't just there to escort her to the guildmaster. Oh well, better safe than sorry. Plus, he was handy to have around as a general 'fuck off' sign, if nothing else.

"Alright, let's move. At least we'll be more or less on time for that meeting."

"Yep. Well, we better get going, his town house isn't that far, but we're still on the other side of the bazaar." The elf smirked. "We might have the sergeant to help open the way, but even then it isn't exactly the easiest place to navigate in the world."

"Fair enough."

And with that, they plunged once again into the great Bazaar of Darthar.

*****

"So, it's not functional?"

"Yep. Or rather, sort of."

Emilia turned towards Alexandra, raising an eyebrow, and the Earth-born sighed. She looked at the turret sitting in front of them.

"It's....complicated. It's been sitting outside for several millenia, exposed to sand storms and gods know what, so I didn't really expect it to be working, and it's not. But some of the components do function, somehow." She shook her head in almost admiration. "Say what you will about those maniacs from the Great Night, they built stuff to last."

Emilia shrugged.

"Some would dispute that point, and argue that it is more a case of taking the designs and technologies from the Gods."

"I suppose there's quite a bit of truth to that, but I doubt it. In theory, you can maintain a technological civilization with only empirical knowledge, but you can't rebuild one without knowing what you're doing. And they rebuilt their civilization several times over during the Great Night. And I somewhat doubt the Gods would have been insane enough to just hand them over the schematics for weapons powerful enough to more or less render the planet uninhabitable."

Or at least, Alexandra dearly hoped that was the case. Given the fact that the God of Fire had left the apparently terrifying Custodians of the Flame behind to enforce his edicts, she really didn't want him to be completely insane, or at least seem to be from a human standard.

"That's a fair point." Emilia sighed. "There's a lot we don't know about the Great Night and how it came to be, unfortunately." She smiled sadly. "Something to do with them blowing up everything."

Alexandra took a deep, almost trembling breath. Unlike Allya, she had seen what happened when a planet was submitted to a saturation orbital bombardment. She'd seen a world die firsthand after all.

And maybe in a few millenia she'd stop having waking nightmares about it.

She waved her hand as the vampire girl looked at her, concerned.

"It's fine. Look, point is, I'm probably going to be able to make something out of this, but duplicating it isn't an option."

"Right. Didn't you say the gun on this thing reminded you of something? Something from your world?"

Alexandra nodded.

"Yes. It reminded me of pulsers. It's a category of weapon, with pulse pistols, pulse rifles, ect, you get the point. They were cutting edge weapons, built by the United Interstellar States." She snorted. "Say what you will about these guys, they knew how to make weapons like nobody else. I'll try to summarize and not go too far into the technicalities. Pulsers are kinetic projectile weapons, meaning they rely on the kinetic force of a projectile to deal damage, like firearms. You know what firearms are, correct?"

She looked at Emilia, who nodded.

"Yep, the Eris Empire has begun commercializing them. They're expensive, but I've held and fired one." She rubbed her shoulder, wincing. "No one warned me that the 'recoil' would hurt that much."

Alexandra smiled.

"Right, classic prank. Anyway, firearms use the deflagration -basically burning something really fast, but not fast enough to make it truly explode- of an explosive substance, typically nicknamed 'gunpowder', to accelerate a projectile down a barrel. There are a lot of other tricks, like using rifled barrels and hollow based bullets to spin the bullet and trap more of the gases behind it, hereby making it faster and accurate, and even some using electromagnets to further help accelerate the projectile." She held up her hand, making Emilia close her mouth. "I'll explain electromagnets and gauss weapons later. Point is, it uses a slow explosion to accelerate a projectile."

"Pulsers, on the other hand, use gravity to accelerate projectiles. The closest analogy from this world is using kinesys runes to accelerate the projectile down the barrel. Do you see what I mean?" Emilia quickly nodded, and Alexandra smiled. "Excellent! Well, in my world, given that we, you know, didn't have magic, we had to use artificial gravity generators, the same kind we used to keep people with their feet on the deck. Well at least when you don't have an idiotic assistant technician spill his coffee on the power conversion module. Anyway, pulsers are more or less a big gravity generator strapped to a barrel to aim the projectile and a bunch of capacitors to keep everything powered. Pulsers were considered cutting edge when I...left, because of three things." She held up her hand, extending a finger at each point. "First, gravity generators were very, very, very hard to miniaturize. It was possible, but gravity generators powerful enough to make a human portable pulser viable were thought impossible to miniaturize. Hence why everyone was surprised when the UIS managed to do it, as they weren't especially known for their expertise in gravity engineering, and were more specialized in advanced computers and AIs. But nonetheless, they did it, and no one else could replicate it, which gave them a definite advantage, especially commercially, since they were the only ones that could sell the things. Second, pulsers are virtually recoilless, as Newton's third law of motion doesn't apply to artificial gravity generation. Don't ask me about the details, I know how to apply the theory, but I can barely understand the fifth page of equations, and the demonstration book is about a thousand pages long. That means that unlike firearms or gauss weapons, your aim doesn't get thrown off when you shoot, and you don't have to worry about being thrown around everywhere in zero-G. And third, they have an absolutely insane rate of fire. Gauss weapons are very good, and in fact are better than pulsers against heavily armored target, but they're slow firing at best. To make a long story short, gauss weapons can make their projectiles faster, and thus more effective against better protected targets, but they trade that for 'low energy spent to projectile velocity' efficiency, which means it takes longer to recharge their 'Stand By' capacitors, the ones that can actually power up the firing system. So pulsers fire much, much faster than most weapons, and if you do it right you can even use a small gravity generator to power the ammo feed so your projectile input can keep up."

She stopped, and turned around, before hesitating slightly, realizing she wasn't in the place she had started the lecture, and had indeed been subconsciously pacing while making her explanation. She regained her footing very fast however, thanks to her short stint as a lecturer at the war college. She looked at Emilia, who had taken a seat on one of the workshop's stone stools, with a pen and notebook in her hands, happily scribbling down notes.

"Alright, questions?"

Emilia giggled.

"I have many, but let's go with the most relevant first." She pointed at the turret. "You're saying that this is a pulser, essentially?"

Alexandra nodded.

"Yep. And as far as I can tell, it used both runes and a conventional artificial gravity generator. Unfortunately, the generator is completely busted, but the runes are still intact, more or less. The ammo feed, however, is completely fucked, on account of having been shot and partially melted, if my guess is right." She shrugged. "I guess the people that took it down knew where to aim. Same for the computer core, this thing's brain so to speak, it was completely destroyed. However..." She walked up to the turret, and tapped some glass lenses at the bottom left of the barrel. "Some of the sensors for this thing appear to be fully functional. I don't truly know what they do precisely, not until I wire them to a golem and try to make them work, but it is a promising piece of technology."

"So, in short, you think you can make some stuff out of it, but you can't repair it?"

"Yes and no. I'm fairly sure I can make a basic, one shot pulse gun out of the barrel and the runes embedded into it. I'll probably mount it inside a gauntlet or spear. And the sensors are fascinating and open many possibilities, especially for traps. But even with all the odds and ends we gathered from the golems, I don't think I'll be able to fix it, or even properly make the gun work, no. But it does get me one step closer to understanding magitech, and gives me some stuff to play with." She smiled. "So, a definite win!"

"Nice! Alright then, now that we're done with that..." Said the vampire girl in an innocent tone, and Alexandra froze, like a reindeer caught in headlights as Emilia directed her cute smile towards her. "Why don't we start working on the entrance? We can't just let your dungeon entrance be a hole in the ground, that just won't do, mmmhhhh?"

Alexandra gulped, then meekly nodded as her heart tried to freeze and melt at the same time. She...sucked at making things look pretty, to say the least.

*****

"Ah, lady Aubétoile, lady Windwrath! It is good to know that you were able to come!"

Elkaryos quickly got up from behind his desk, and made his way to Allya, shaking her hand, then quickly doing the same for Pyn, before ushering them towards the couch.

"Please, take a seat. I wasn't sure if you would be able to make it, so I didn't have drinks prepared." He looked up at his butler, who was still holding the door open, completely unfazed by the somewhat towering presence of Valker in the anteroom. "Jeremy, could you please go grab the hot chocolate, and three mugs? And see to the ladies' bodyguard's needs please."

The butler bowed, and closed the door behind him, while Allya and Pyn sat down on the couch, and Elkaryos imitated them a second later on the opposite side of the table.

"Alright, so, first things first, are you alright." He held up his hand as Allya opened her mouth. "Just to make myself clear, I don't want a rote response." His eyes hardened, and Allya almost recoiled as all levity left his expression, only to leave the eyes of a hardened adventurer. "Despite all rumors to the contrary, the merchants guild takes care of it's own and it's associates. There may have been...problems sometimes in the past, but I do fully intend to honor my word." He leaned back into the couch. "Which is why I was more than pleasantly surprised when commander Orland decided to assign you a personal security detail without any prompting of my own. Not that I needed a further demonstration of his competence, you understand."

Elkaryos smiled as the door opened again, and Jeremy stepped through, quickly depositing a steaming mug in front of everyone, then grabbing the handle of the pot of hot chocolate, and raising an eyebrow.

"Mmmhhh...No, take the pot, I don't expect this to take very long."

The butler nodded, and withdrew from the room. Elkaryos smiled.

"So, do you have the agreed upon payment for your basic advance?"

Allya nodded. The 'basic advance' was the amount of money they were going to invest from the get go, and once transferred, would make the contract fulfilled and fully binding. The rest of their shares they would have pay back from the profits made from their operation. Given that said operation was a dungeon town, she wasn't particularly worried.

"Of course. Here."

She took the letter of credit from her own pocket, quickly followed by Pyn, and handed it over. Elkaryos grabbed it, and his eyes widened slightly.

"That is...interesting. Adventurers' guild uh? I suppose that does explain why you were talking with Starvak. Did you know he used to be nicknamed 'fantastic mustache' back in the day?"

Allya had to stop herself from giggling, and the choking sounds coming from her left told her that Elkaryos' joke had come at a most inopportune time for the elf and the hot chocolate she was currently drinking. She tapped Pyn on the shoulder and turning towards her.

"Are you alright?"

Pyn smiled at Allya as she caught her breath, somehow having managed to swallow, and not spit out her hot chocolate in the process.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She smiled. "I just...wasn't expecting that."

Allya smiled back.

"Neither was I." She then turned back towards Elkaryos, and her smile turned colder. "Thank you for that...bit of trivia, mister Elkaryos. In any case, we have come here to seal the deal, pay what you were due, confirm the contract as valid, and leave. As I'm sure you're aware, we've had a pretty long and tiring day, and we'd rather retire early."

Elkaryos nodded, noting that his ploy to try and destabilize them to extract information from them had failed. In fact, that ploy had seemed definitely on the low key from the Master Merchant. Allya's eyes narrowed, was he...testing them?

She shook her head, she didn't have the time to wander down conjectures. Right now what she needed to do was confirm the contract as binding, before Elkaryos got word of the dungeon's existence and either tried to wiggle out of the deal or seek better terms.

"That is fair. In which case, let us get to it."

He snapped his fingers, and Pyn's ears twitched and Allya moved slightly as she felt the almost oppressive feeling of the massive enchantment around them. A second later, the door opened once again, with Jeremy's head poking through the opening.

"Yes master?"

"Could you go and warn our friends at the WMC I'm about to drop in on them? Thank you."

"Of course, right away master."

The door promptly closed as the butler withdrew.

"Alright then, the only thing left to do is sign everything, and get everything to the WMC."

*****

Elkaryos looked out the window into the starry night sky, slowly rocking his swivel chair from side to side. Some found the usage of such a seat ridiculous, and below his stature, but he really couldn't care less. He grabbed his mug, and took a pensive sip.

The two women, Allya Aubétoile and Pyn Windwrath had left just a few minutes ago, after signing and handing over the letters of credits to him, finalizing the contract, and contacting the WMC (who in turn contacted the royal magistrate through the mage on his staff) that everything was in order, and the contract was now in effect.

Overall, it looked like a good venture, one that he expected to bring a good profit.

Yet...

He couldn't shake a vague sense of...wrongness. It wasn't the tickling on his neck that he felt when someone was about to backstab him, more a sense of something being off about all this.

His thoughts were interrupted as his communication mirror chimed. He raised an eyebrow as he saw the caller's identification displayed on the mirror, and with a wave of his hand, accepted the call. The face of guildmaster Starvak appeared on the mirror, with his indeed fantastic mustache.

"Well hello Starvak, long time no see, it's a pleas-"

"Elkaryos."

The dark elf froze and rose an eyebrow at his acquaintance's tone, then he took a good look at the guildmaster's face, and put his mug down on his desk.

"Alright, I can see that you're angry, and that you're not here to fuck around. So let's cut straight to the chase. What's the problem?"

"I have just finished a call with sir Elinkburg."

Elkaryos blinked as Starvak mentioned the royal magistrate by name.

"Oh. I think I see what this is about. Is there a problem with the recent acquisition of the lands surrounding -and encompassing- the ruins of Angel Fall?"

"Yes, you could say that. I suppose I should commend you, since you did this with Allya and Pyn, about your boldness in this matter."

Elkaryos raised an eyebrow.

"Acquiring ruins when there was technology to be harnessed, as long as it doesn't violate the edicts of the god of fire, doesn't particularly strike me as bold enough to warrant such an...angry call. I know it isn't the safest operation on the planet, but the profits are well worth the risk and-"

"Wait, hold on, what are you talking about?"

Elkaryos, whose temper had slightly flared at the second interruption (although he would never allow the guildmaster to see it, he was too good a dissembler for that), froze.

"The ruins. I underwrote the contract to exploit them."

Starvak's disbelieving gaze made Elkaryos suddenly very, very anxious as he remembered the strange feeling about the deal.

"So...you don't know?"

"Don't know what?"

"It's...They..." Starvak suppressed a chuckle. "They didn't discover that the ruins had been opened, or rather, yes, but that wasn't the biggest discovery."

Elkaryos started tapping on his desk with a single finger, but kept his face studiously neutral.

"And what was said discovery, my dear guildmaster?"

"They found a newborn dungeon there."

Even with all of his talent as a dissembler, Elkaryos' jaw simply dropped.

"I-Uh-WHAT?!?"

Starvak started chuckling outright.

"I'm not joking! It's true! They found a dungeon there! And they got you to make a corporate dominion with them!"

Elkaryos looked at him in disbelief, then took a deep breath.

"Okay, alright. Thank you for that information guildmaster Starvak, you've given me a lot to think about." He sighed. "And a lot of plans to change."

Starvak chuckled again.

"I'm sure you do. See you later Elkaryos, call me back once you've processed all of this, we're going to have to coordinate on this."

"Right, later."

With another gesture, the call ended, and Elkaryos turned his chair towards his desk, and put his elbows on the antique wood. He just sat there, for several seconds, before bursting out in laughter.

"Ahahah! A dungeon! I can't believe it!" He shook his head. "I've been bamboozled. And by 2 young ladies that could have been my daughters! Ah!"

He smiled, and bent to the side, opening at cabinet in his desk, and carefully extracting a bottle filled with an amber liquid tinged with red, and a shot glass. He set the glass on the desk, and took the bottle closer to his face, examining the label.

'Dwarven Fire Brandy, Lorvian special reserve, 4165' it read.

He looked at it...and uncorked it with a pop, he took a deep sniff, and almost coughed as the overpowering smell of what some particularly insane people (or dwarves with stomachs and livers of steel, figuratively speaking of course) would call liquor.

It had been 15 years since he had last uncorked that bottle. And even then, he hadn't gotten far through it. He looked at it for a second, before pouring himself a shot. Then, he carefully put the cork back into the bottle, and it shone slightly as the enchantments took hold and rendered it completely air tight, and the conservation enchantments kicked back in, to prevent the drink from degrading.

He grabbed the shot, and looked at a portrait, hung over the wall, above the communication mirror.

That portrait depicted Sseth Tzeench of the house of Tach, the Grand Merchant, founder and leader of the merchants guild.

He had been the one, over a century and a half ago, to offer him that bottle when he had been promoted to Greater Merchant. As he understood it, it was some form of tradition Sseth undertook with his most promising disciples. He had told him that whenever he got bamboozled, or otherwise successfully swindled, he should take a shot.

Well, no, his words had more or less been 'When someone fucks you over or you feel like you took it up the ass, take a shot. Whether it's to make you feel better or act as a punishment for failure and a motivation to do better next time is up to you.'

Elkaryos rose his glass to the portrait.

"To the merchants guild!"

And with that, he downed the glass.

The next few seconds were indescribable. It felt like he had swallowed lava and aphrodisiacs at the same time, right until the fire brandy, more than living up to it's name, reached his stomach, and at last the burning started to fade, although it never completely vanished, and the effects became more...soothing, as the various enchanted alchemical components in the drink (who was in this regard closer to an elixir than a normal liquor) started to take effect.

Elkaryos took a few seconds to get his breathing back under control, then, he turned back towards his desk, carefully setting the bottle aside (his own weird custom was to keep the bottle on his desk for a full day after he had drunk a shot), and put his head on his hands.

Allya Aubétoile and Pyn Windwrath...he wondered if they knew in what kind of cyclone they had thrown themselves into. A new dungeon was already a big event, but at this particular place. Elkaryos winced. Most of his colleagues and other non-guild merchants would be licking their lips at the trade opportunities this opened, and the dark elf was far from blind to them, but he saw farther than that.

He saw the war that was coming on the horizon. Maybe even several wars. He knew, without a doubt, that this dungeon would spark a conflict like this continent hadn't seen since the fall of the Saphire Kingdom. He would have to make many, many preparations, if he didn't want to be swept up when the cyclone finally came.

His eyes narrowed, maybe his cyclone analogy had more to it than he thought. After all, the dungeon town which Allya and Pyn had so adroitly manoeuvered him into funding might be the center of the conflict, but it might prove to be the safest as well. Only time would tell if it would turn into a sinkhole, or the safe haven, the eye of the cyclone.

In any case, he better keep an eye on these two. They would be central to the events to come, and might prove themselves to be far more than they seemed. After all, they'd bamboozled him, and made him seriously underestimate them. There were many idiots out there who will probably do the same, despite the proof of their competence and cunning.

His eyes narrowed. In fact, he might have to perfect way to both keep an eye on them, keep some control of the ensuing chaos, and help protect them all at the same time.

He pulled out a sheet of paper, the kind he used for messages, and began writing.

'From: Elkaryos Rapier

To: Sseth Tzeench of the house of Tach

Dear Sseth,

I write to you today to recommend the recruitment, or at least evaluation, of two persons for the merchants guild-'